Zero no Tsukaima ~Futatsuki no Kishi~ – 08

In Albion, a man named Menville who really enjoys the battlefield meets with Sheffield and receives a mission to attack the Tristain Magic Academy. Over at the academy, Éléonore enters Louise’s room one night and uses a spell to tie Louise up. Saito wakes up to see her getting kidnapped, but he doesn’t help and instead follows Éléonore to the school’s dungeon. The reason for all this is because Éléonore had heard from Saito that Louise intends to join Henrietta on the front lines, so she’s decided to keep Louise here in this dungeon instead for a while for Louise’s own good. Éléonore tries to tell Louise that the battlefield isn’t the sweet place she thinks it is, but Louise feels that that’s the reason she’s going – only she can protect Henrietta. Despite this, Éléonore locks Louise up and gives her wand to Saito, telling him to watch over her. Louise accuses then Saito of taking her sister’s side, but Saito actually agrees with Éléonore about this. Colbert, who suddenly shows up, also agrees and tells Louise that her sister is worried about her. When Louise declares that she can do anything for Henrietta, including defeating the enemy troops, Colbert questions if that means she’s going to kill those people. He thinks that no matter how they describe it, it’s murder, and he doesn’t want that for his students.

Above the school, a flying ship approaches carrying Menville and his men who quickly take out Agnès’ guards and start rounding up the students. Before they reach her, Tabitha goes to Kirche’s room to tell her about something going on, and the sound of an explosion confirms that there’s trouble. Agnès also doesn’t get caught because she manages to knock out the guy who came after her, and she then gathers her forces. They report that everyone is being gathered in the dining hall, which Agnès realizes means that the enemy is taking hostages. In the dungeon, Saito wakes up to see Colbert with his ear pressed against the wall, and they soon hear the sound of girls screaming. Leaving Saito to watch over Louise, Colbert decides that he’ll go up to see what’s going on. Meanwhile, Julio is tied up with everyone else and chides Menville for attacking a school. Menville, however, says that he has nothing to do with Albion or the war and is doing this for his employer. Seeing Menville then threaten a scared Montmorency to get her to be quiet, Osman offers himself as a hostage and tries to get the students released, but Menville rejects it because the country wouldn’t act for just Osman alone. Even when Éléonore and Cattleya offer themselves as hostage too, Menville still says that it’s not enough – all the students are needed.

As her troops plant explosives on the back wall of the dining hall, Agnès makes her presence known and demands the release of the hostages. However, Menville detects the explosives and uses his magic to set them all off before the girls planting them can get away. The noise of these blasts reaches the dungeon, and Louise convinces Saito to let her out. They arrive outside the dining hall soon after Agnès and her troops launch their attack on Menville, and the two run into Kirche and Tabitha. Before the four of them can do anything though, they’re found by Colbert who had just sent out a carrier owl with a letter requesting reinforcements. Kirche, however, feels that that will be too slow, so they have to do something, and when Colbert disagrees and tells them to run away, she says that they don’t need a coward. Back inside the hall, after Agnès asserts that she won’t lose to a coward who takes hostages, Menville admits that he personally doesn’t like doing that. Instead, he remembers how there was a town that got burned down a long time ago and how he enjoyed watching the flames engulf everything. Agnès realizes that he’s talking about D’Angleterre, but she’s unable to use her anger to her advantage, and he melts her sword with his magic.

To Agnès’ surprise though, Menville reveals that he wasn’t the leader back then – he was just a lieutenant. The actual commander was known as the Flame Serpent, and Menville feels that this man was crueler than him. However, Menville is also searching for him because of the wound that man inflicted on him.

Preview:

It seems rather convenient that right after the whole underground excursion, the one guy who knows about what happened back then in D’Angleterre suddenly shows up. In fact, the whole plot to hold everyone hostage felt a bit too run-of-the-mill (they didn’t even show how someone like Julio got caught by this bunch of mercenary thugs), and the only interesting thing for me was that, if the preview is any indication, Colbert might be the Flame Serpent. It would certainly make sense since we know that he was probably the one who save Agnès back then and since he’s so against all this fighting and killing. Maybe all that killing finally had an effect on him and he renounced it or something.
Saito and Louise meanwhile spend this episode doing relatively little, though they may get a little bigger role next week since they’re taking part in the rescue. Actually, it looks like Kirche may also play a big part, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that she’s got an affinity for fire magic too.

It looks like they’re straying away from the novel if the insane guy is the one from Colbert’s past. At that point Saito and Louise were on their way to Albion for the war. I have no idea how they’re going to change the story to fit the Albion war in the last 4-5 eps. The opening scene where the two wine glasses touch is much further along in the story and doesn’t bode well for a happy ending (more like a cliffhanger for season 3). And are we going to get the Saito x Siesta scene?

Wow, who is directing this season? Does this Agnes revenge plot really matter in the scope of other things this anime could be covering from the novel? This season started off nice, but it’s getting pretty ridiculous now. There’s 4 episodes left, and with the way this crap is being directed, it doesn’t look like anyone will be interested in a 3rd season.

I DON’T CARE ABOUT AGNES. I WANT MORE SAITOxLOUISE DEVELOPMENT (as in the characters this anime is suppose to be about).

I bet mithril vs lead that Colbert was commander back then in the D’Angleterre incident…
I’ll disagree with my preceeding co-commenters and say that Agnes subplot makes nice refreshment over Saito X Louise development (anyway after last kiss & all in the boat they could only go further by going full hentai, which doesn’t fit formula of the series).

that nice refreshment you are talking about has already taken up 4 episodes and next will be the fifth. One or two episodes about Anies would have been ok, but to waste nearly half a season on it goes far beyond that. I don’t think I’ll even bother watching the rest of it. I’ll just check in here to see what they mess up.

Julio, Saito, the 3 sisters were not there in the first place so it might be a bit forced for them to be there in the anime. The Louise lock up wasn’t necessary. I’m just wondering how are they going to warp up the main War arc without rushing it.

Saito’s anti-war sentiment and Louise’s nobles oblige will inevitably crush somewhere down the road. So there will be some nagative development of their relationship. Still, at the end of the day, Saito loves Louise and vice versa.
Saito hates war, but doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself to protect Louise. That’s an irony and I guess that’s the main theme of this 2nd series.
I expect most of other aspects of the war described in the novel should be chopped off in this anime series. Likely a bit rushed, but maybe they can handle it in somewhat capacity.

well, we have 2 interesting conflicts building… Saito “the peaceful son of 21st century Japan” vs. Louise “medieval aristocrat with martial attititude”, and Colbert “retired battle mage that has seen too much bloodshed” vs. Agnes “revenge-bent last survivor of massacre”

Colbert may be the flame of the snake and was the one who destroyed Agnes Village. But I wonder how it but I wonder how as @ewok said of the character will work out. It will be interesting to see if Agnes will be able to forgive Colbert is hes the flame of the snake. Overall its still my Fav anime for this year.

I think that the main problem with this season is that Agnes was given way too much focus, yes they didn’t make her more likable. The ZnT may not be about the war, but it is about Saito, how he fits in this new world, and his relationships with the people around him, especially Louise.